Freezer Cooking: Preparing for Dinner Weeks in Advance
I enjoy freezer cooking. What is freezer cooking? For me it is preparing part or all of a meal and freezing it for another day. Sometimes, I make and freeze complete dishes, such as lasagnas, chili and soups. Other times I have ingredients for a recipes stored in the freezer, waiting to be added to fresh food from the fridge. Regardless of which category my freezer food falls into, the point is that I prepare for my meals well in advance of needing them, freeze them, and then can quickly throw together a meal when I need it.
The first time I decided to try my hand at freezer cooking was one month before I had the twins. Worried that I would struggle to make dinner with two small babies, I went to work preparing and freezing meals. The only resource I had at the time was a book called the Occasional Cook by Cyndy Salzman. I really enjoyed her strategy to freezer cooking. She would make very large batches of a single food, such as chili, and then provided 10-15 ways to use chili in other dishes. For example, chili can be used to make tamale casserole, queso con carne dip and taco salad. While I don't reference Cyndy's book as often as I used to, I still enjoy her methodology and I frequently will make a large batch of chili, marinara, or beef mixture and store it in the freezer.
Since that time, I have continued to adopt a variety of habits that help me make quick meals, such as buying meat in bulk, separating it into portions, and freezing it. Often, if I am separating chicken or pork for freezing I will make marinades for the meats, and put the marinades in the bags before freezing. Freezer marinating allows you to create a variety of flavors with the same meats. So we might have chicken more than one night a week, but if one night it is BBQ and another is is teriyaki, no one gets tired of eating chicken. I will also cook meat in bulk, and then freeze it. I happen to love grilling 10-20 pounds of chicken and saving it in the freezer. Grilled chicken is great on pasta, salads, and in a chicken salad. My favorite grilled chicken recipe can be found in one of my favorite cookbooks, Cheap. Fast. Good. I will post that recipe on another day.
I also do once a month cooking. Once a month cooking is when you buy enough ingredients to make full meals for freezing. Often 15-30 meals are made during a once a month cooking session. To do once a month cooking, I have to have a solid block of time, usually it is a two day process for me, 4 hours on a Friday and 6-8 hours on a Saturday. For these sessions I create carefully planned menus and plan a very detailed shopping trip, to allow me to have everything I need for making my selected recipes for freezing. Because I am short on time, I only do this about once every three months. It, along with my other freezer activity provides enough for us to have stress free dinners.
If you want to learn more about batch cooking or freezer cooking, check out these websites.
Four Weeks to Fill Your Freezer - This lovely lady makes a recipe a day for freezing. I like her approach, plus she makes some delicious extras like cinnamon rolls. Very fun!
Crockpot Freezer Cooking - This blog provides information about making crockpot meals ahead of time, so that in the morning, you can just throw it in the crockpot.
Once a Month Mom - This is a menu planning site for freezer cooks. There are LOTS of free menus available on the site, so don't be scared by all the membership info. You can get step by step directions on doing a month's menu.
I have tons of other favorite sites, but not enough time or space to post them all in this article. I will continue to provide freezer cooking recipes and tips in the upcoming months.
Let me know if you start freezing ;-)
Sarah
The first time I decided to try my hand at freezer cooking was one month before I had the twins. Worried that I would struggle to make dinner with two small babies, I went to work preparing and freezing meals. The only resource I had at the time was a book called the Occasional Cook by Cyndy Salzman. I really enjoyed her strategy to freezer cooking. She would make very large batches of a single food, such as chili, and then provided 10-15 ways to use chili in other dishes. For example, chili can be used to make tamale casserole, queso con carne dip and taco salad. While I don't reference Cyndy's book as often as I used to, I still enjoy her methodology and I frequently will make a large batch of chili, marinara, or beef mixture and store it in the freezer. I also do once a month cooking. Once a month cooking is when you buy enough ingredients to make full meals for freezing. Often 15-30 meals are made during a once a month cooking session. To do once a month cooking, I have to have a solid block of time, usually it is a two day process for me, 4 hours on a Friday and 6-8 hours on a Saturday. For these sessions I create carefully planned menus and plan a very detailed shopping trip, to allow me to have everything I need for making my selected recipes for freezing. Because I am short on time, I only do this about once every three months. It, along with my other freezer activity provides enough for us to have stress free dinners.
If you want to learn more about batch cooking or freezer cooking, check out these websites.
Four Weeks to Fill Your Freezer - This lovely lady makes a recipe a day for freezing. I like her approach, plus she makes some delicious extras like cinnamon rolls. Very fun!
Crockpot Freezer Cooking - This blog provides information about making crockpot meals ahead of time, so that in the morning, you can just throw it in the crockpot.
Once a Month Mom - This is a menu planning site for freezer cooks. There are LOTS of free menus available on the site, so don't be scared by all the membership info. You can get step by step directions on doing a month's menu.
I have tons of other favorite sites, but not enough time or space to post them all in this article. I will continue to provide freezer cooking recipes and tips in the upcoming months.
Let me know if you start freezing ;-)
Sarah
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